Camiguin

Camiguin is kind of our third home! Our relationship with the beautiful volcanic island goes back to 1985 and we have been here many times, especially for diving. But we also know many people and have friends and acquaintances here. Since this spring we have been staying with René and Irene in a homestay called Silent garden and the name doesn't promise too much: except for the waves and the croaking of frogs, it is wonderfully quiet and our cottage in the middle of a beautiful garden is a dream. We also enjoy the friendship with Maiko and X, whom we met years ago through their cute puppy. And of course, diving with Dondon is always a highlight. Although the weather conditions are not as good as in April/May, we (especially Dondon) always find new shells that we have never seen before. Mäge is more enthusiastic about octopuses and the big mimic octopus while feeding is still his diving highlight. Shortly after our arrival, the first tropical storm sweeps across the country and the next day Dondon cancels the dive because his 15-year-old nephew drowned while spearfishing. What a tragic death - the boy from a fishing family wanted to earn some money for school or festival clothing and paid for going out during the storm with his life. Batulong helps the family cover the funeral costs.

In the last few days, another typhoon, which was a tropical storm for us, swept over the island. Diving is not possible then and our cottage was partly a water castle, surrounded by rainwater. Outside, the waves crashed against the massive garden wall and a good meter of sand height was washed away, but that's quite normal here: once you have a large sandy beach in front of the house and suddenly it's gone.

On Wednesday, our stay in the Philippines will come to an end and actually we wanted to fly from Camiguin to Cebu and then take the Emirates flight from Manila to Dubai to Zurich shortly before midnight. But because a week ago a Korean Air plane in Cebu skidded off the runway due to the heavy water and was damaged, there are no more flights from there in the evening. Although there are newspaper reports stating that evening flights are not possible until the end of November, the airline doesn't seem to think it's important to inform the passengers. So we go to the small airport on Camiguin and the staff there says she can only rebook our flight once we have received an email from the airline. Of course, we can't wait for that, so we book a second domestic flight from Cagayan de Oro. It's not great to travel an additional 7-8 hours, but we want to catch the international flight. On the Cebu Pacific website, we read about passengers who received a cancellation info 4 hours before departure! «It's more fun in the Philippines» we think sarcastically... there are indeed reasons why the country is economically and touristically much worse off than its neighboring countries.

The sun is shining again and the birds are chirping - tomorrow we can probably go diving again!